The Prime Minister also said Russia has stopped transit flights
by Ukrainian airlines to such destinations as Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey, adding that the country was
considering a ban of transit flights for European and US Airlines
to the Asia-Pacific region.

Western sanctions were a “dead-end track”, but Russia
has been forced to respond to the measures taken by the western
countries, Medvedev added.

Alcohol imports from both the EU and the US will not be
restricted.

“We are actually speaking of an embargo on imports of whole
categories of products from countries which have introduced
sanctions against Russian organizations and individuals,”
Medvedev said.

Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Federal Customs Service (FCS) to
see that the banned imports could not cross the Russian border.

The Russian PM has also warned against possible attempts to use
the situation to drive up prices.

"I would like to warn that attempts to gain from price
speculation in this situation will be roughly stopped,"
Medvedev said.

The Russian PM added that Moscow still had a lot of trading
partners abroad, which it had not placed on the retaliatory
sanctions list.

Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has announced
plans to increase imports from Chile, which could include
vegetables, fruit, fish, shellfish, meat and milk.

“Imports of fish, which last year amounted to 53,000 tons,
may grow two or three times. Shellfish imports might increase
from 3,000 tons to 15,000-20,000 tons,” the watchdog said in
a statement.

Medvedev said he sincerely hoped"our partners’ economic
pragmatism will prevail over bad political decisions, and they
will think before trying to frighten Russia and impose
restrictions on it. And mutual trade and economic partnership
will be restored in the volumes which existed before. We would
have liked that to happen.”

In 2013, Russia imported $6.7 billion of meat and meat products
in total. The largest suppliers came from now-banned countries
like Denmark (6.6% of total Russian meat products), Germany
(6.4%), USA (5.3%), and Canada (3.8%).

Unique opportunity

Medvedev believes the year-long embargo Russia is imposing will
boost domestic agriculture. He acknowledged that Russian farmers
would have to come a long way, but said it was a unique
opportunity to develop facilities to substitute for imports.

“We are only lagging behind in production of certain
varieties of meat and milk. We have to catch up and our farmers
are ready to do so, especially if we help them.”

Triggered by the ban, Russia’s domestic production of
agricultural products could grow by about $10.8 billion in the
next 18 months, Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fyodorov,
told ITAR–TASS.

The Governor of the Krasnodar Region, Aleksandr Tkachev has been
quick to react to the news by saying farmers in the region will
use the chance to replace imported goods with their own produce.

“I have spoken to the heads of agricultural enterprises,
concerning the presidential decree on the ban of imports of
Western agricultural goods,” Tkachev said, as cited by
ITAR-TASS. “The mood is on the whole optimistic. Krasnodar
farmers have received a strong stimulus to use all of their
potential.”

Krasnodar is already a big agricultural player in Russia. The
region is the third biggest producer of meat and eggs in the
country and the fourth biggest producer of milk.

The Astrakhan Region in Russia’s south also said it was ready to
increase agricultural production by 20–25 percent next year.

“There’s a real possibility that all the low quality goods,
which have been imported, will not appear on the Russian market
again. The country’s agriculture is now being given a historic
chance for a breakthrough, to increase production, the variety of
goods, and to improve processing technology,” the Governor
of the Astrakhan Region Aleksandr Zhilkin, told ITAR-TASS.

Banning certain imports from the West will provide “historic
opportunities” for Russia’s more distant territories in the Ural
Mountains and in the Far East.

“Russia is the richest country in the world and has unique
marine resources that unfortunately go abroad. However, the
demand for these products on the international market are very
high,” Irina Yarovaya, a Duma member from Kamchatka, said.

The new rule will help Russia develop its agriculture sector and
make it easier for Russian farmers to market their products, Igor
Rudensky, head of the Duma Committee on Economic Policy,
Innovation and Entrepreneurship said.